If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Zen of Creativity Chapter 9

When you hear the splash of the water drops that fall into the stone bowl you will feel that all the dust of your mind is washed away.
Sen no Rikyu, (1552-1591) Japanese tea master

This lovely chapter is somewhat a departure from the ‘how to’ chapters preceding it. John Daido Loori is describing Zen ceremonies, how they relate to our practice and the spare, elegant beauty of the ritual, the implements, and the surroundings.

JDL devotes quite a bit of text to The Tea Ceremony.

I add to JDL's discussion with some words from Soetsu Yanagi’s (The Unknown Craftsman, A Japanese Insight into Beauty) concerning the tea ceremony’s early practitioners...

Though everyone says he sees things, how few can see things as they are. Among these few are found the early masters of the way of tea. They had deep seeing eyes. They could comprehend intuitively. And with this penetration, they saw the truth.

Soetsu Yanagi goes on to discuss the utensils, how craftsmanship was integral to their production, from the hanging scroll to the tea garden, the movements of serving tea he calls ‘the craft movement of life.’ He sums it up explaining that The Way of Tea is the ‘aestheticism of craftsmanship’. But this beauty is not a refined, stale statement but more the concept of wabi-sabi that Kokuu has mentioned. Perfection in the mundane, beauty in the ordinary…

Few of us can attend an actual tea ceremony, although it seems that you can make a cup of tea and have your own ceremony: In the words of an esteemed Japanese tea master Sen Rikyu. Tea is nought but this;
First you heat the water,
Then you make the tea.
Then you drink it properly.
That is all you need to know

The same aesthetic with the oryoki ceremony. The first sesshin I attended years ago I watched with awe the formalities; the rituals involved in eating a meal. As an artist I thought of it as beautiful and even as performance art. I carefully packed my three bowls and chopsticks in the cotton cloth, carried them as though they were a precious treasure throughout the week. The sensei and the jikijisu draped in black, the rest of us in somber colors were led into the dining hall with bells and wooden clappers. We passed the kitchen, rich with the enticing fragrance of a freshly prepared meal. The chanting continued as we sat solemnly until our food was served with hand signals and deep bows. After hours of sitting all my senses were open to perceive this ritual completely. It was lovely and meaningful and perfect with the zazen and kinhin practice. It all made sense. All so simple and crisp.

A body of artwork came out of this experience and even recently I’ve returned to my 3 Red Bowl series. I will post images later.

I love JDL’s discussion of our gardens in the west, how excess means beauty, whereas his example of the single morning glory on display shows how, really, less is more. This along with his admonition to simplify our lives fits into the philosophy of the tea ceremony, oryoki etc. scraping away the excess to get to the core of life.

Are there ceremonies that combine aesthetics of made objects with spiritual practice that are especially meaningful for you as an artist? During this period of Ango have you created a personal ritual practice with your art making, or your eating or meditation? Like me, has your creativity been opened by a particular ritual?
Please share.

Our prompt this time continues to explore the simplicity and beauty of the Zen aesthetic – in her part of this post Anne uses the words 'spare elegant beauty', which I think sums up perfectly the physical manifestations of the Zen art – ikebana, chado, chabana, archery, haiku etc.

Daido Loori connects this spare beauty to rituals around our practice – from a simple Gassho to the Tea Ceremony and Oryoki. Bowing, lighting incence, unfolding the Rakusu and putting it on, sitting – these are all rituals that we are all familiar with and many of us use. So this week I'm proposing something very simple – let's try to express, in any medium, the beauty of our own personal rituals. A tea ceremony doesn't mean that we have to have a tea house in the garden ( but if you do, let's see it!) it can be as simple as putting a tea bag in a favourite mug. It can be a coffee ceremony, or something as basic as a refreshing glass of water. We don't need to have an Oryoki kit to show appreciation and gratitude for our food – looking at how you serve food might reveal that you are unconsciously creating something which is aesthetically pleasing to you – white rice in a rustic bowl, a colourful salad on a beautiful plate, a dark chocolate brownie on a perfect white background. Some twigs in a vase, a beautiful journal, an arrangement of words on a page, a collection of sounds, a piece of sewing or knitting, the physical pleasure of a tai chi movement – all of these things can have an ineffable quality that calls to something within us.

Are there elements of a personal ritual that you could photograph and share? Or express through a drawing, a print, a poem, sounds? No obligation to share of course, but I would insist that you enjoy reflecting and playing with this prompt!

Interestingly, while researching this, the most common expression of the Zen aesthetic that I found was that of the Zen garden – although I couldn't find an actual term that encompasses it in the same sense that ikebana does for flower arranging – perhaps Kotei can help us out here? I really enjoyed these links, as well as some fun information and ideas about indoor and outdoor gardens, there is also a breakdown of the terms used in Japanese zen aesthetics. Perhaps we might come back to these in a future creative project.

I wear trifocals at work. Sometimes no lines sometimes with lines. I constantly have to go from the computer screen, to the medical chart and to the patient. I also have to look where I am going down the hall when walking to greet the next patient or recognize the correct patient in the waiting room. My eyes can’t handle it all without taking my glasses on and off all day long depending on what I am doing. The process is ritualistic and the picture above is what they look like on my desk awaiting for their next ritual adventure.

I wear trifocals at work. Sometimes no lines sometimes with lines. I constantly have to go from the computer screen, to the medical chart and to the patient. I also have to look where I am going down the hall when walking to greet the next patient or recognize the correct patient in the waiting room. My eyes can’t handle it all without taking my glasses on and off all day long depending on what I am doing. The process is ritualistic and the picture above is what they look like on my desk awaiting for their next ritual adventure.

Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

I do the same with reading glasses, on/off, and cleaning them before a “new challenge” has become an unconscious ritual. A little discouraged that it sounds like trifocals didn’t solve that problem Guess I will save my money.

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

清 道 寂田SEIDO JAKUDENI am a novice priest. Any resemblance my posts may have to actual teachings about the Dharma, living or dead, is purely coincidental (and just my attempt to be helpful).

I do the same with reading glasses, on/off, and cleaning them before a “new challenge” has become an unconscious ritual. A little discouraged that it sounds like trifocals didn’t solve that problem Guess I will save my money.

This is wonderful. I was thinking that most our 'rituals' were around spiritual practices. Thanks, Jishin for opening that up!
And really a very fine spectacle image.

I'm so OCD that my rituals are almost constant. Hard to separate them out. But will be thinking.

In the meantime I'm posting 2 images from Zen gardens in Kyoto taken when my husband and I were there in 2003. These are images of what I consider to be imperfect perfection.treeleaf leaf.jpgkyoto fence.jpg

Few of us can attend an actual tea ceremony, although it seems that you can make a cup of tea and have your own ceremony: In the words of an esteemed Japanese tea master Sen Rikyu. Tea is nought but this;
First you heat the water,
Then you make the tea.
Then you drink it properly.
That is all you need to know

Lovely.

I will try to think of what I can add to the mix... Right now what comes to mind are the many rituals involved in work; how over years we develop unconscious and precise movements, always in the same way, and usually pretty gracefully. While working in the food business, I noticed many of these types of rituals coming up out of my hands without my intervention: the way I would clean a knife, or the way I would spin the customer's bag toward them as I set it down, etc.

Gassho
Sat today, lah

求道芸化 Kyudo Geika
I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

I will try to think of what I can add to the mix... Right now what comes to mind are the many rituals involved in work; how over years we develop unconscious and precise movements, always in the same way, and usually pretty gracefully. While working in the food business, I noticed many of these types of rituals coming up out of my hands without my intervention: the way I would clean a knife, or the way I would spin the customer's bag toward them as I set it down, etc.

About to make my last subs on Tuesday! I am officially quitting to continue in the dog bathing business. Exciting and scary too. I like to be good at what I am doing, and now I am going to jump into a situation about which I am about %50 clueless.

Gassho
Sat today, lah

求道芸化 Kyudo Geika
I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

About to make my last subs on Tuesday! I am officially quitting to continue in the dog bathing business. Exciting and scary too. I like to be good at what I am doing, and now I am going to jump into a situation about which I am about %50 clueless.

Gassho
Sat today, lah

And which you are therefore about 50% knowledgeable. There are heads of state running entire countries with far less knowledge of their jobs than that, so you've nothing to worry about.
You'll be wonderful and your clients are the best!
Gassho
Meitou
Satwithyoualltoday

And which you are therefore about 50% knowledgeable. There are heads of state running entire countries with far less knowledge of their jobs than that, so you've nothing to worry about.
You'll be wonderful and your clients are the best!
Gassho
Meitou
Satwithyoualltoday

Ahhh... yes, I need to be a little more glass-half-full sometimes Thank you for the positive perspective.

Gassho
Sat today, lah

求道芸化 Kyudo Geika
I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

Jishin, your post was really thought provoking; I also wear trifocals/progressive lenses and to be honest, I'm still not sure about them, but I know that I also have rituals with mine, it's not just about convenience, but something more, something I find quite difficult to explain but seems to be to do with how I connect to certain situations. I definitely use my glasses for more than just seeing, perhaps because I've worn specs since I was 8 and I'm chronically short sighted, as well as the joy of falling apart as you put it!. Lots to explore here. I was talking to Anne about certain things I do at home and I can see that here too there is ritual - for example I can't settle into the day until the bed is made, and I could certainly never leave the house without making it. Yet I could leave a sink full of dishes without thinking twice, so what's the difference? I guess it's about preparing mentally for day - making the bed is a ritual that gives closure to 'night'.

Looking at the creative side, I think I have quite a few small rituals as well as the general one of sitting and quietening the mind. The most obvious is when using brush and ink. I talked about this in the very first prompt - seems a long while ago now! Although I don't grind the ink and therefore miss out on that meditative step, I still take a while stirring the ink with the brush to get the right consistency and tone, and use the in breath to prepare for the mark, which I make on the out breath. Again I've posted this before but here's an enso project I did a couple of years ago.

There's also the ritual of pencil sharpening - I imagine that most artists have that one. There's actually a book dedicated to the art of sharpening pencils, it's that important!
Both of these could be seen as allowing space to prepare mentally before starting a project, but I think in my case they can also be used to put off making those first scary marks.
Interestingly I can't think of a single example of rituals around taking photos, I just bang them out - is that because I'm more confident in that medium? Not sure, perhaps it's to do with the immediacy of taking a photo. So perhaps ritual can sometimes have a lot to do with preparation.

Anne, your Japanese garden photos are great. They are a great example of the perfect marriage between creativity and Zen practice. I was also very taken with your description of Oryoki as akin to performance art, I think this can also be said of other disciplines like ikebana, archery, tea ceremony and calligraphy - all of them are so full of grace and flow, a real connection of body and mind.

Hello,
thank you Anne and Meitou! For this Chapter's posts and also your prompts.

Meitou,
regarding the question about a term that describes the aesthetics of 'zen' gardens, I am not sure how to answer...
I am approaching these gardens as a kind of language with a certain grammar and vocabulary and try expressing an idea with it's help.
There seems to be a reduction in the usable elements like rocks, certain types of vegetation, water, lanterns...
and a syntax, rules for combining the basic units for an overall balanced and pleasing whole.
There are different dialects, the different garden types like stroll garden, tea gardens, dry landscape gardens, pond gardens and more.
There is a development of the language, the tone of feeling, garden types, over the time.
I don't know, if there is something like a zen garden.
If there is... - maybe the rock, or dry landscape gardens are closest to this. The others too, but that is not so easily recognisable.
The ideals of Ikebana, tea etc. also apply imho. Everything seems to be placed for accenting the unseeable, the emptiness.
With some few words, I would call it "The beauty of emptiness" and this is especially true for the dry landscape ('Zen') gardens."Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I really like the bamboo fence picture, you posted, Anne.
They are so wonderful perfect imperfect, esp. when they are getting old. Usually, they are not totally replaced, when they begin falling apart, but stake for stake repaired, so there is the overall greyish fence with random yellowish or even green ones in between.
There are so many different things expressed with these fences... Tricking perspective with differently formed "windows" or with pointing the thick ends of the horizontal ones all in one direction; being inviting with low fences where the stakes do not stick out on the top or being restrictive, with high fences and stakes sticking out long on the top. Using different thickness... and so much more...

I am having a lot of secular rituals like Jishin's glasses (!), too.
Some are merging with the spiritual ones.
I am starting my mornings with some spiritual practice rituals, walking through the garden, entering my little Zendo, chanting, bowing, sitting nearly every morning in the free sitting room with the usual suspects (the 'Euro morning crew' :-)).
After that, I silently return through the garden and on 5 of 7 days a week, I put on my running clothes and start for a silent run for about 1.5 to 3 hours through the forrest, fields, along the river... through nature. Finding an continuation of the former, inspiration for the things I make and for life in general.
A kind of very fast Kinhin and experiencing nature, me being a part of it with all the seasons, weather and livings just NOW...
Step by step by step by step by step by step....

Kotei, thank you for the post. Fascinating about the gardens. When we were in Kyoto visiting Buddhist temples they all came with their own version of the 'zen' garden, always stressing serenity, view taking in the distant mountains, water in some capacity and really a indescribable spareness with lots going on! All very unique and creative and settling.
And your images (wow an amanita muscaria!), so dreamy and painterly really. A landscape that is soft and lush. I live in a desert, so seeing your images makes me remember that there are soft edges on things in many parts of the world.

I love ritual. It probably stems from my early years growing up in the Catholic Church. The Latin, incense, bells, satin robes, chants, bee's wax candles etc (covering all senses). So even now, I am taken with ceremony. I think that's been my attraction to Zen Buddhism. I still use aspects of those early ritual impressions in my artwork.

So a few years ago I produced The Rakusu Project (the video has been posted on TL a couple of times but if you are interested you can find the link to the video and information and images on my website http://annecooperstudio.com/rakusu%20project.html ). The video is from our first performance, the subsequent performances were tighter but unfortunately not taped. I made costumes for us all. And a couple of years ago I discovered another woman's interpretation of Buddhist garments in her Kesa Project https://www.betsysterlingbenjamin.com/html/kesa.htm .

Meitou, I love your Enso video. I missed it when you posted it previously. Thanks for posting it again. Your confidence with a brush shows through; which we could see in your posts on filling your drawing tablets. Really amazing to me.

As promised I am posting images of two THREE RED BOWL pieces that I've just finished. Clay was my thing many years ago, but returning to this medium has had its issues. Not really finding my way quite yet, but wanted to post anyway. In the 90's I started this series inspired by the Oryoki ceremony. IN those years the nonfunctional bowls were clay as well covered in wax and pigment but also some bowls were made of bees wax, even turned steel and I made wooden boxes to house them. I have slides but my slide scanner is not working so for now I can't post any of those early pieces. Nor do I have any left to photograph.

These imaged boxes and the bowls are all made from a high fire red clay, rubbed with bee's wax and pigment. The red circles are lids for the 3 bowls in that box. Still resolving some issues with the piece. But just an example how ritual/ ceremony plays out through my art.

Kotei thank you for your wonderful post full of lovely information about zen gardens, you are really inspiring me to get into this further. Yes I was thinking about the dry gardens - there is a name for them I think - karensansui? I'm also interested in tsuboniwa - the courtyard gardens - I am aspiring to one of these with my little yard. I'm always interested in being creative within strict and defined boundaries, I love the challenge. I also really enjoyed reading about your rituals around walking and running - the photos are beautiful. I realised that taking photos of the sea when I leave the house to walk or pop to the shop is a proper ritual for me too.

Anne I love ritual too. I also love churches and religious buildings of any kind, religious statuary, icons, rosaries, the lot! It's interesting to me that before I started to identify with Buddhism, I felt very uncomfortable attending obligatory church events here - family weddings, christenings and funerals etc, but now I'm more than comfortable with them - I can really identify because of my own faith -having faith in something much bigger than ourselves can provide common ground, connect us, just as our communal belief in creativity is connecting us here.

Your Red Bowls are fabulous Anne, I love the form of the boxes with the beautiful motif on the lid echoing the lids of the bowls beneath, such clean lines and subtlety in the pigment. I think that so many of the processes around creativity are imbued with ritual and performance, vital to the creative journey and end result.

In January I began lighting a candle every evening in memory of our cat Lula who left this life at that time. It has become a ritual and that, along with my attempts not to throw things away unnecessarily, led me to saving all the candle ends and grouping them together in a bowl. I wasn't quite prepared for the towering inferno that followed, but I did at least manage to take a photo before things got out of hand!

Anne,
it's hard to imagine a desert with this humid autumn air around.
It takes only around an hour in the forest, collecting enough edible mushrooms (of course not the red ones :-) for a good meal for several people.
I have friends in Jordan, who often talk about the harsh beauty of the desert... Always a challenge to imagine.
I like the ritual aspect of your work.
The bowls and box are wonderful, too and I am feeling a strong urge to smell and touch them.
Keeping bees, I have an own support of beeswax, producing candles and enjoying the scent. The candle, I am lighting in the mornings, is of that source, too...

Meitou,
yes, Karesansui, dry(ed) landscape.. or Kasansui, artificial? landscape or Furusansui, old landscape or Arasensui, dry pond.
Your horizon photos are very touching... The thought about the endless free sky and endless free ocean and the small, narrow gap in-between, where all our life happens... Feeling the unlimited potential and how I am limiting myself. Not a bad feeling... Just some kind of bittersweet melancholic thing. :-).

There is so much written about the symbolic dimension of zen gardens and quite some professionals think this was all made up later ;-).
The stone setting in the famous Ryoanji 'Zen'-garden was said to copy a star constellation, a Chinese character, steering the view in a certain direction, or being completely random. Maybe an intuitive version of what these guys wrote is closer to reality: http://www.kasrl.org/vsjzg.pdf

Jishin, you inspired me to post one of the items on my meditation table.bear.jpg

I have a bear phobia. And we have a small cabin high in the mountains of northern NM. We have bears around so this bear is there to remind me of their wild beauty and important place in our world. This bear fetish is about 1.5" x 3", made by Zuni Pueblo Indians carved out of a piece of granite with 2 pieces of raw turquoise (NM state mineral). A gift to me many years ago. Because of my phobia I have been given several bear fetishes but this one is my favorite. She sits next to Kuan Yin on my altar.

Kotei, The high desert (we are a mile high) in NM is beautiful, rich and lush in its own way. But also can be harsh and forbidding. Our state has the southern end of the Rockies intersecting it north to south. Those mountains pull in the rain and can be lush and moist. In summers when the monsoons are full throat-ed mushrooms abound. We collect chanterelles, porcini (boletas) and enjoy the beauty of even the poisonous amanitas. I envy your being able to gather dinner in a few minutes. The summers, falls we have mushrooms are very special because it is not every year.

I have a bear phobia. And we have a small cabin high in the mountains of northern NM. We have bears around so this bear is there to remind me of their wild beauty and important place in our world. This bear fetish is about 1.5" x 3", made by Zuni Pueblo Indians carved out of a piece of granite with 2 pieces of raw turquoise (NM state mineral). A gift to me many years ago. Because of my phobia I have been given several bear fetishes but this one is my favorite. She sits next to Kuan Yin on my altar.

Great photos. Re: Bears in the wild, where my partner and I are moving to in tropical North Queensland, large Salt Water Crocodiles are regularly seen and when it floods they can halt traffic on bridges, a recent photo of which my brother in law took I will see if I can find.
Gassho
Anna
stlah

Sent from my Lenovo TB-8304F1 using Tapatalk

On Ka
穏 火
aka Anna Kissed.
No Gods No Masters.
Life is too serious to be taken seriously.

Meitou,
somewhere here is a thread that mentions the unity of Japanese (influenced) gardens and their buildings.
The tea pictures were made in the main room of a small, mostly wooden building, close to the pond, that belongs to the garden.
Under a shared roof, there are three small buildings, or better 'rooms', that open with a glass/shoji front to the pond and each other.
The little Zendo... the multifunctional room, I am using for serving tea... and separate sanitary.
A modernish, westernised version of what we wanted to preserve from the originals.

Anne,
you're very welcome... There is more than one cushion in the little Zendo. I am always a bit too excited, but enjoy sharing it very much! Working with clay, I think you'd enjoy the artist-made Yixing Zisha clay pots, I am using for Chinese tea ceremony.

This is an amazing thread - thanks all.
Still not well so not able to focus to contribute but really enjoying the images.
Kotei do you have more to share - you live in a beautiful environment and the images are very calming.